Electrode processing for lithium ion batteries and other applications using slurry casting techniques typically require drying of the casted film or coating. Typically, drying procedures are determined and “optimized” by trial and error using a variety of drying temperatures, times, casting thicknesses, solid loadings and slurry compositions with binder, surfactants and other additives. In a tedious study of different drying temperatures and times, a coating is produced and characterized for flaws, such as cracking and delamination, after the drying. If integrity is determined and no flaws are detected, the optimization is finished and a coating drying procedure is determined.
However, this drying procedure is typically not a truly optimized procedure. This non-optimized procedure often results in higher costs than necessary. Additionally, slight changes in material, slurry composition, pH value of the slurry, and changes in additives (knowingly or unknowingly) can result in a highly non-optimized procedure after the change and the drying procedure has to be determined from scratch.